Congrats to Fritz’s Polka Band…

By Greg Haymes On Aug 13, 2010

Verona-based Fritz’s Polka Band has earned a nomination from the National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame in Euclid, Ohio, for their original song, “Come Home Safe.”

Written by FPB’s bandleader-vocalist-accordionist Fritz Scherz, the song has been nominated in the Best New Original Polka or Waltz category.

The song, which is featured on the band’s 2009 album “Tribute,” on the group’s recording, “Tribute” which was released in 2009, has a special meaning to the band.

“The guys in my band are happy that ‘Come Home Safe’ has been nominated,” said Scherz. “I wrote that song in honor of my friend of many years, Mike Bolton, as he was deployed overseas serving our country. And I’m pleased to say that he did come home safe.”

Winners will be announced at the Crystal Awards Show XXIII in Cleveland on Saturday, November 27.

Good luck, Fritz!

Fritz's Polka Band

Greg Haymes18126 posts

Greg Haymes founded Nippertown, along with his wife Sara Ayers, in 2009. Greg was a musician, journalist, and ambassador to the Capital Region arts community. Greg passed in April of 2019, but his legacy continues.

Be Here Now: Over The Edge Fundraiser @ Crowne Plaza, Albany

Eddie Angel Sells Shoes

Event Details

Tickets go on sale to Music Hall Members today (anyone can become a Member) and on sale to the public this Thursday, June 10.

MacArthur Fellow and Grammy Award-winning mandolinist, singer, songwriter Chris Thile, who the Guardian calls “that rare being: an all-round musician who can settle into any style, from bluegrass to classical,” and NPR calls a “genre-defying musical genius,” is a founding member of the critically acclaimed bands Punch Brothers and Nickel Creek. For four years, Thile hosted public radio favorite Live from Here with Chris Thile (formerly known as A Prairie Home Companion). With his broad outlook, Thile creates a distinctly American canon and a new musical aesthetic for performers and audiences alike, giving the listener “one joyous arc, with the linear melody and vertical harmony blurring into a single web of gossamer beauty” (New York Times).

Most recently, Chris recorded Laysongs, out June 4, 2021 on Nonesuch. The album is his first truly solo album: just Thile, his voice, and his mandolin, on new recordings of six original songs and three covers, all of which contextualize and banter with his ideas about spirituality. Recorded in a converted upstate New York church during the pandemic, Laysongs’ centerpiece is the three-part “Salt (in the Wounds) of the Earth,” which was inspired by C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters. The album also features a song Thile wrote about Dionysus; a performance of the fourth movement of Béla Bartók’s Sonata for Solo Violin; “God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot” based on Buffy Sainte-Marie’s adaptation of a Leonard Cohen poem; a cover of bluegrass legend Hazel Dickens’ “Won’t You Come and Sing for Me,” and “Ecclesiastes 2:24,” original instrumental loosely modeled after the Prelude from J.S. Bach’s Partita for Solo Violin in E Major.

https://www.facebook.com/events/236693534933608/

Time

(Saturday) 8:00 pm - 11:00 pm

Location

Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, 30 2nd St, Troy, NY 12180, USA

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16oct8:00 pm11:00 pmFeaturedDude of Life Band / John Liebowitz8:00 pm - 11:00 pm Lark Hall, 351 Hudson Ave, Albany, NY 12210, USA

16oct(oct 16)9:00 pm17(oct 17)12:00 amFeaturedMidnight North / Hilltop / Pat Ferguson9:00 pm - 12:00 am (17) The Hollow Bar + Kitchen, 79 N Pearl St, Albany, NY 12207, USA

Event Details

Doors at 8 / Music at 9
18+

It’s full steam ahead for Midnight North after an exciting year featuring major festival plays, nationwide tours, and the release of a second live record. Rolling Stone hailed Midnight North as the “Best New Act” in its review of 2018’s Peach Music Festival saying the band “takes the best parts of roots music and weaves them into a tapestry of rock and Americana”.

In the summer of 2018, Midnight North released their second live record, Selections from the Great American Music Hall. This 8 track album features original live staples like “Everyday” and “Playing a Poor Hand Well”, covers like John Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery” and the Dead’s “The Music Never Stopped”. The concert album also features guest appearances by Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, members of Twiddle, and the band’s hometown horn section, The Northbound Horns.

Immediately after their sophomore studio release, 2015’s Scarlet Skies, Midnight North – fronted by lead songwriters Elliott Peck & Grahame Lesh and strong rhythm section work from bass player Connor O’Sullivan and drummer Nathan Graham – began touring the country in earnest, visiting the East Coast and the Midwest for the first time in summer 2015. The band wrote the majority of 2017’s Under the Lights in the following months, and the lyrical road themes – the initial excitement, the longing for home, and the inherent need to keep moving – shine through. Midnight North Live“Under the Lights is the perfect title for this collection of songs,” said O’Sullivan. “These songs and lyrics are about being a band of musicians on the road away from home. Songs literally performed and tested under the lights at countless venues across the US.”

2019 and beyond will continue the growth for Midnight North, as the expanding discography and consistent national touring help pave the way for more and more fans to discover the band. “These songs tell our story, at least up to this point,” said Lesh. “Our job is to sing you these stories as honestly as we can and transport you into our world for an hour or two.”

https://www.facebook.com/events/366350585069225/

Time

16 (Saturday) 9:00 pm - 17 (Sunday) 12:00 am

Location

The Hollow Bar + Kitchen, 79 N Pearl St, Albany, NY 12207, USA

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